Passengers seats, such as aircraft passenger seats, commonly include rigid seat parts, contoured foam cushions, and dress covers. Conventional apparatus and methods for attaching dress covers over foam cushions include adhesive bonding, tie-downs, hog rings, and hook-and-loop fasteners.
Adhesives are undesirable because adhesive bonds tend to break down over time as a result of cushion flexing. Adhesive bonding further prevents the dress cover and cushion from being separated without damaging the cushion, thus requiring cushion replacement at the time of dress cover replacement.
Tie downs and hog rings are undesirable because both require a special tool for installation, thus increasing time and complexity during initial installation and subsequent dress cover replacement. Further, tie downs and hog rings tend to cause unevenness in the surface contour as the dress cover tends to be pulled tight at each tie down or hog ring location and remain loose between tie down or hog ring locations. Further, tie downs and hog rings are damaged during disassembly, thus requiring new tie downs or hog rings with dress cover replacement.
Hook-and-loop fasteners are undesirable because such fasteners tend to have low tension strength, particularly when pulling the two sections apart perpendicular to the joined plane. Further, each of the two sections must be attached to one of the dress cover, rigid seat part, and cushion, thus requiring sewing or adhesive bonding.
In view of the above disadvantages, what is needed are dress cover attachment solutions able to accommodate various rigid attachment structures, assemble and disassemble without damage to the cushion and attachment structure, and facilitate rapid dress cover attachment and replacement, among other advantages.